ISIS terrorists have burned down an Egyptian military drone that crash landed in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula.
On October 1, the terrorist group’s news agency, Amaq, rereleased several photos of the drone, which was identified as a Chinese-made Aisheng ASN-209. The news agency falsely claimed that the drone was armed.
The drone landed by parachute near the town of al-Tufaha, to the south of Bir El Abd city, most likely as a result of a technical failure. ISIS terrorists didn’t open fire at the drone.
The Egyptian military is the only known foreign operator of the ASN-209 which was developed by China’s Xi’an ASN Technology Group. The surveillance drone is made locally in Egypt by the Arab Organization for Industrialization.
The ASN-209 has an operational range of 200 kilometers and an endurance of more than ten hours. The drone’s main payload is an electro-optical system.
ISIS cells have been waging an insurgency against Egyptian government forces in Sinai since November of 2014. In the last few years, the terrorist group’s activities in the peninsula saw a slow decline. The Egyptian military, security forces and intelligence maintain heavy pressure on the group.
“isis” again? Western constructed and contracted mercenaries using recruits from proxy forces in the Middle East and Africa? Training by the western armed forces?
Call a spade a spade for once.